Boxed MobileMe discontinued

Further fuelling the rumours that big changes are in store for MobileMe, Apple has discontinued the boxed version of its MobileMe software.

According to Apple Insider, Apple has declared single user and family packs of MobileMe “end of life”. The Insiders have doused the flames of speculation yet more, by suggesting that the service will undergo maintenance tonight, leaving its web-based applications unavailable for around 30 minutes.

Apple Sales News, its internal sales newletter, advised employees:

“Starting February 24th, Apple is no longer producing the retail box version of MobileMe.

“Once remaining MobileMe retail boxes have been sold through, direct customers to sign up for MobileMe online at www.apple.com/mobileme.”

Apple is expected to turn MobileMe into a cloud-based service, acting as a digital storage space for music, photos and video. If true, the move would reduce the need for on-board storage on the iPhone, in turn bringing down the price.

it won't bring down the price, if anything it'll increase it. Apple won't reduce the storage on the iPhone as not everyone will want to use mobile me so the price for iPhones won't change. But they'll still be charging an added subscription for people who do want to use mobile me